


Take Me To The Ballroom (and we'll dance)

by shopfront



Category: Smallville
Genre: AU, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-04-03
Updated: 2010-04-03
Packaged: 2017-10-08 16:35:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/77554
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shopfront/pseuds/shopfront
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chloe and Kara learn how to dance - then stumble, fall, and dance some more. (Rewrite of seasons seven and eight.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Take Me To The Ballroom (and we'll dance)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ladydreamer](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=ladydreamer).



> This story is part of a ficmix (see endnotes.)

_Definitely this cannot be all that you have to offer love,  
When you're on your own, well look I fell in love.  
'Cause this world is way too big now.  
You're beautiful, you're beautiful to me._

"That can't be normal, can it?" Kara turned big bewildered eyes on Chloe as she accepted the coffee Chloe was offering.

"We-ell," Chloe shrugged and took a seat on the other end of the couch. "I don't know that the being roped into a super-powered team of beauty pageant criminals part was normal, but I wouldn't personally enter one without expecting a certain level of hair pulling and one-upmanship."

"So Kal-El had good reason to discourage me?"

"I think that Clark is just concerned, and trying to do his best to help," Chloe ventured nervously. She hadn't realised she'd signed up for resident alien counselor and human behaviour coach when she'd offered to entertain Kara at the Talon after hours so Clark and Lana could talk things out. "I definitely think there are easier ways for you to make friends, though. Better friends, too."

"I do want to make human friends, very much so," Kara grinned and eagerly shifted forward on the couch. Chloe stifled a smile when Kara didn't notice she'd sloshed incredibly hot coffee all over her hand with the movement. "I thought being attractive was the way you do that here?"

"Well, for starters, you need to remember that hot coffee is supposed to hurt if you spill it on yourself," Chloe smiled back and reached to take the mug, "because you'll probably be drinking a lot of it with people while you're trying to get to know them better."

"Is consuming coffee a pre-requisite for making friends with other girls on Earth?" Kara asked, then licked the coffee off the back of her hand and wrinkled her nose. "Because I'm not sure if I like it."

Chloe blinked and then let out a startled giggle. "It's not a requirement, but it is an easy and informal way to spend time with someone you don't know. You can always order something off the menu that doesn't have coffee in it."

Kara just nodded and beamed at Chloe some more while she scooted back on the couch and wiggled to get comfortable. That smile was contagious, Chloe had discovered that the moment they first met, and she couldn't help grinning back with what was probably a silly look on her face.

"I don't think you'll have too much trouble making friends, Kara," and Chloe already knew she wouldn't, she was too sweet and caring. "Just take your time, get to know Clark and learn about Earth and get comfortable here, I guess is all I'm saying. Good friends here will value you for more than what you look like."

"Okay. Chloe? If we're sitting in a coffee shop drinking coffee together, does that mean we're friends now?"

Chloe could feel her grin getting even wider, and she didn't fight the pleased laughter bubbling up inside her. "If you want us to be. I'd be honoured to be your friend, Kara."

"Oh good! Because you're nicer and you explain things better than Kal-El."

Kara's grin turned cheeky, and Chloe laughed and laughed.

 

*** * * * ***

_Let me go around blue skies, buy me drinks till I fall back.  
'Cause if good means wrong, she can sing along, but if good means right..._

 

Sometimes Chloe wasn't a big fan of being kind of short, but now was very definitely not one of those times. There had been a frantic knock at the door, and when Chloe had padded over barefoot to open it she'd practically come face to face with Kara's cleavage. Kryptonians seemed to have a secret super power to make jaws drop and eyes glaze over when they stopped being shy, and with teeteringly high heels, a deep-necked blue slip of a dress, and that ever present smile, Kara clearly wasn't feeling shy tonight. She was also successfully making Chloe's eyes glaze over.

"I want to go out somewhere!" Kara exclaimed, hair everywhere and biting her bottom lip. "Will you come with me?"

"Um, sure? Just... give me a second to... change," Chloe said, and tried to drag her eyes away from Kara's very appealing ensemble.

"Great! Lana told me sometimes Earth girls bond over picking out outfits together, so I thought we could bond," Kara said and gave a twirl. "What do you think? I could run home and grab something else?"

Chloe just gulped, struck momentarily speechless by how high the dress had flared. 'Too much Kryptonian leg, mortal brain cells not coping,' she thought with a slightly hysterical mental giggle. Kara frowned when she didn't get an immediate response, and disappeared for a second to reappear with two new dresses and another pair of disturbingly high heels.

"Maybe this one instead?" Kara held a dark green dress up in front of her and glanced at Chloe hopefully. It looked like something borrowed from Lana's closet, pretty and flattering but not nearly as entrancing as the original dress.

"No! The, er, the blue dress is lovely, Kara."

"Really?" Kara's frown deepened and she looked suspicious.

"Really! I just don't know what I have that will look good alongside it," Chloe babbled wryly. "The blue dress is wonderful. Perfect even! You look beautiful, Kara."

Kara just ducked her head and let her lips curl a little, but she did waver enough to drop the green dress on Chloe's bed.

"Maybe with the new shoes though? They look really nice too." She let her relief show when Kara's smile ratcheted back up to beaming, and turned towards the bathroom. "I'll just wash up quickly-"

She paused, and looked behind her at Kara, who had reached out and grasped Chloe's hand as she moved away.

"You're beautiful too, Chloe. I think you'd look great alongside this dress in anything." Kara squeezed Chloe's hand, and stroked her thumb along the inside of her wrist before releasing it. "I'll have a look in your wardrobe while you're in the bathroom?"

Chloe just nodded dumbly and stumbled out of the room. Once she was alone, she stared at her wrist and let her fingers linger where Kara's had been.

*** * * * ***

_I think that we make a pretty good team.  
You know what I mean, nothing can come between us now._

 

"I asked Kal-El and Lana to explain dating norms between humans of the same gender last night, but they just stammered a lot and then Kal-El asked if I wanted the last of the pie."

Chloe choked on her coffee, but gamely managed to avoid spitting it everywhere. Kara absentmindedly patted her on the back, but Chloe didn't have the heart to point out that she'd have to hit slightly harder than a gentle stroke to be any help. Not that she thought she could speak around her burning throat right at this moment, anyway.

"I know, crazy huh? Kal-El never surrenders the pie."

"Surprise-" Chloe finally managed to choke out.

"That's right, even Lana was surprised. I certainly couldn't believe it. You don't think he meant pie was involved, do you? I know Kal-El means well and he was raised here, but even I know pie isn't an integral part of dating habits on Earth. Unless you're Lana, maybe."

"Could you-?" Chloe waved a hand towards the kitchen sink and tried to breathe through her eyes watering. Kara blinked at Chloe's outstretched hand until she managed to mumble a word that was almost but not quite 'water.' Then Kara gasped and nodded in comprehension, and zipped across the room and back so fast Chloe barely had time to miss the warm hand now rubbing gentle circles on her lower back before she was gratefully grabbing the glass.

"I know that finding humans who embrace what you call bisexuality or homosexuality is harder than finding ones that like heterosexuality, but there must be a way to figure out the difference-"

Chloe kept sipping at her water and watching Kara's lips move as she kept speculating aloud and at great length, all the while continuing to stroke Chloe's back as if she'd almost forgotten she was doing it.

"-and is there a polite way to ask, or is that too direct? Are there social norms attached to each label that I must learn to be able to identify which kind of human sexuality the person prefers-"

"Sometimes asking is too direct, depending on the person. Just try to judge whether they're showing interest. You must have had to do that on Krypton as well, right?"

Kara gaze sharped on Chloe and she abruptly left off her mutterings. "On Krypton we didn't have all these confusing categories, you just needed to know whether someone was already spoken for. You think I should focus on indicators of interest instead of asking verbal questions? Things such as temperature and heart rate, perhaps?"

"Y-Yeah." Chloe felt like a very small animal transfixed by a very bright light, and was she imagining things or had Kara's hand stopped stroking lightly and started easing Chloe closer to her?

"Your heart rate is elevated, Chloe," Kara breathed.

"Is it?" Chloe asked, but it wasn't really a question because Kara was breathing an affirmative against Chloe's neck and she found her eyes were fluttering closed. 'Thank you Clark for being seriously awkward about explaining social etiquette' was her last thought, before Kara insisted she stop thinking and start _feeling_.

*** * * * ***

_I think he's in a jealous rage; she's probably not the easiest one to live with either.  
And doesn't she know that she is doing it all wrong,  
All of this talking and all of this chatter is making me sick, even though they say it doesn't matter._

 

"Kara, please, you have to trust us!"

"I don't even _know_ you. You and Clark keep lying to me," Kara cried and gestured at Lana before turning to Chloe, "and you say we were dating, but I don't _remember_ you or recognise _anything_ about you-"

"Please, Kara." Chloe was getting desperate now, they didn't have enough time. Lex and his guards could burst through the door any second. She reached out and grabbed Kara's hands and looked her in the eye. "We will explain everything later, I promise, but you have to trust us."

Kara still hesitated, her eyes darting between them and her brow furrowed. Lana stood off to the side, watching the door and waiting, but practically forgotten.

"Trust _me_," Chloe finally pleaded, when it became apparent Kara wasn't going to respond. Kara searched her eyes, and then dropped her gaze to their joined hands, where Chloe had subconsciously started stroking Kara's wrists with her thumbs. She was trying to be strong, she was, but to stand in front of the woman she'd been slowly falling for and not be recognised - it hurt more every time she did it. They'd used to joke that they were becoming addicted to each other, but now it was like she woke up every morning with her body wracked by withdrawals and Kara was utterly unaffected.

"Okay," Kara said slowly, raising her head. "Okay, I'll trust you."

*** * * * ***

_I want to change the world - instead I sleep.  
I want to believe in more than you and me, but all that I know is I'm breathing.  
All I can do is keep breathing._

 

She'd panicked, the first time Kara had come to her and hadn't been herself. Clark thought she was going mad when she turned up at the farm and broke down sobbing in his arms, but something was deeply _wrong_, even if she couldn't figure out what it was. Now something in her hungered for that sharp shooting pain of emotion, because anything was better than drifting through her days knowing that Kara was out of reach and there was nothing she could do to change that.

Even having Brainiac running around looking like Kara had been better than this. At least then she hadn't known that it was Brainiac, not Kara, and there'd been some hope of seeing her again. She'd disappeared and all they had to go on was the occasional clip of surveillance footage, or the black box recording in Edward Teague's plane. The video feed of Brainiac going to talk to Lex that she'd hacked into from the Isis foundation for a brief moment before Lex's security system had booted her back out. It was still better than nothing though, because there was still hope buried somewhere deep inside it.

He must have been monitoring the mansion's security, because he followed the blip in the feed back to her, and for a second she'd thought it had been her lover standing in front of her.

Then he'd opened Kara's mouth and the world had come crashing down again. After he had crushed all her hopes of reunion and left, and she'd been released from hospital, she had just sat in her apartment exhausted and fretting and feeling sick from loneliness. She was still sitting there when Lex's goons burst through the door, and it was only luck that Lois had just called to check up on her that meant anyone even knew she was gone.

Her time being quizzed and tested like a lab rat passed like a blur, and her joy at being rescued by Lois, Clark and Oliver had been dimmed by the fact that Kara hadn't been with them. She'd sat in that horrible chair all that time and hoped so hard that Clark would have found Kara while Lois found her, but no such luck.

Kara wasn't anywhere on Earth, and there wasn't any hope, just endless days of empty wanting.

So when Oliver tries to dissuade her from using the crystal, there's no question. Her best friend is on the other side of that crystal, and he disappeared as completely as her girlfriend did so she has to _believe_ there's a connection and that accessing the crystal might bring them back to her. There's pain and hope filling her again, and she'd forgotten how to live like this. Everything is all emotions and agony, but she can survive it for Kara and Clark. She can do that and she won't let anyone get in her way, and then the crystal is spinning and things are moving in a rush and she can feel them somehow and-

It's worth any cost because Kara is standing in front of her looking tough and stoic, but she opens her mouth and it's like the sweetest music to Chloe's ears because she knows. This is _her_ Kara, and all the horror is finally over.

*** * * * ***

_And I'm sick of this war I wage on myself.  
I don't know why I'm so gripped to go there, a universe riddle that only I know?  
'Cause I can't be anyone but me, and I can't keep dreaming that I'm free._

 

I'm sorry.

I know it's not fair, after everything you did for us.

Of course I don't think it's just about that.

I missed you too, I did! So much, you have no idea.

I have to know, Chloe. I _have to know_. It's my people, and my family.

I love you too, please don't doubt that.

I'll be back one day.

This won't be the last time you see me, I swear it.

You'll be okay. You'll probably break my heart when I come back and realise that I've lost you.

Of course you will. You deserve to be happy, and you're stronger than that.

I'm sorry.

I'm so sorry. But I have to go.

Please, try to understand. Try to forgive me.

I love you.

She begs and pleads but it makes no difference. Kara leaves, and she has to remember how to pick herself back up again.

*** * * * ***

_Truth be told, simple and bold, I think you're special.   
We can roll like a team, you know what I mean?  
I'm not gonna let you down, 'cause I do love you, this I know.  
Do you love me, baby?_

 

When Chloe opens the door she can't believe her eyes, but there she is. Kara. Standing there in the sun with her hair in the wind and a nervous version of her usual beaming smile, but still her Kara.

"I've been gone a long time."

"You have," Chloe replies with a face still as stone, but when Kara reaches for her hand Chloe lets her take it.

"I hurt you deeply by leaving when I did, especially after everything we'd been through recently."

"You did."

"But I'm here now-"

"You are," Chloe interrupts, and there's a thumb brushing against Kara's wrist.

"- and I'm not going anywhere."

"You're not?"

"No, Chloe. I'm not. I've done my searching, and it's brought me back to you."

"Kind of like a boomerang?"

"Or a homing pigeon," Kara agrees, and then they're kissing and Chloe's knees are melting because she'd learnt to live again but there's still nothing like Kara's kisses. It's every kiss they should have had when Chloe got her back from the Phantom Zone. Apologies, and 'I missed you', and vows of eternal devotion and making up for lost time rolled up in the sweetest swipe of lips and a tentative hand on a waist. Chloe tangles her hands in Kara's hair and uses them to tug Kara inside the doorway and push her back against the door after Kara kicks it closed, and it feels like forgiveness and promises.

**Author's Note:**

> This story is part of a ficmix: [Take Me To The Ballroom (and we'll dance): a Chloe/Kara AU mix [EP]](http://shopfront.dreamwidth.org/288900.html).
> 
> Lyrics quoted from: Beautiful to Me by Little Birdy, Take Me To The Ballroom by Moonbabies, Nothing Can Come Between Us by Obi Best, Accident by Rachael Yamagata, Keep Breathing by Ingrid Michaelson, Idaho by Nerina Pallot, Do you love me? by Amanda Jenssen.
> 
> Written for ladydreamer. Prompts: coffee, after hours, addiction, Chloe helping Kara get used to Earth, Kara giving Chloe a fresh perspective, undercover cross-dressing, making out, Kryptonian bisexuality, and surprise Chloe bisexuality.


End file.
